Hush Hush: sharp performances, but the plot lacked nuance and depth.

While viewing episode two of the new thriller series Hush Hush, I had the impression that the show was coming together. We saw Ishi (Juhi Chawla), a powerful and controversial lobbyist, in an altercation with an unknown man near the end of the first episode, and the chain of events that led to her three closest friends Saiba (Soha Ali Khan), Zaira (Shahana Goswami), and Dolly (Kritika Kamra) becoming involved in this situation.

Now, just a few minutes later, Ishi is discovered dead in her apartment – suicide or murder? – and the friends, bereaved, are attempting to absorb the events of the previous night, how they have been involved, and what options they have.

Saiba and Zaira are snapping at one other as the bewilderment and guilt grow, while Dolly – the most traumatized of the group at this point – is staring vacantly at her companions, feeling like a trapped bird (a reoccurring theme for this character), unable to verbalize her own thoughts.

Meanwhile, the cops, led by Geeta (Karishma Tanna), arrive at the crime scene to conduct an inquiry. All of the main characters, the five women that appear in the show’s opening titles, have now been introduced. There is a focused intensity in these scenes, in the anxiousness of Dolly, Saiba, and Zaira’s exchanges, which comes together brilliantly and are supported by crisp performances.

And it’s a shame Hush Hush never regains its concentration and rigor. As the show progresses, it remains engaging in the same way that almost any moderately well-crafted crime series can be if you have enough time as a viewer (or if you have to see it for review purposes): you keep watching because there are minor cliff-hangers here and there, you have become invested in a couple of the characters, you like the actors… Most importantly, you’re hoping, even though your gut instinct says no, that the plot and pace will improve.

Hush Hush, on the other hand, allows itself to become scattered and loosely structured. Despite doing a decent job of building up its premise and providing us with basic knowledge about the lives and difficulties of its high-society protagonists.

The other side of the class divide is also depicted in the form of Geeta and some hilarious script asides. “Sir-Ji, siyaappa ho Gaya,” a building security guard is supposed to have exclaimed after discovering Ishi’s body in her luxury apartment – a blunt, rustic, wide-eyed remark that seems worlds away from the aristocratic lives of the La Opulenza complex and its air-kissing residents.

A cop says, “Inn Cameron ke life ka ‘behind the scenes Kuch Aur hee Hota hai” (rich people’s lives appear extremely different when you see behind the scenes), and another says, “Inn ameer logon ke alag hee chocolaty hote hain” (rich people have their own troubles). And a brief lecture from Geeta’s mother about how rich and poor people aren’t fundamentally different, but money changes everything.

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Made in Heaven, an earlier, better series that also seemed to be primarily about the lives of rich socialites until becoming a more nuanced analysis of class strife, gained much of its frisson from what we progressively discover about the heroine Tara and her rise into a fortune.

Of course, one cannot expect every program to follow an identical framework or style, but given how much Hush Hush appears to invest in its major characters (and how earnestly the main performers treat the material entrusted to them), there are too many gaps and not enough backstory.